Mental Health Issues: Psychosocial Problems, Support, Agencies, Gaps, and Advocacy

This article discusses the psychosocial issues faced by people with mental health problems, the informal supports available to them, the professional agencies involved, gaps in service delivery, and advocacy needs. It also provides insights into the impact of mental health issues on society.

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MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
By (Name)
The Name of the class (course)
Professor (Tutor)
The Name of the school (University)
The City and State where it is located
The date

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1. What are the psychosocial issues for the person in the case study?
Social and psychological problems especially those associated with school issues and behavior
are more common among the youths. In most cases, the psychological issues among the children
are anxiety, depression, withdrawal and eating disorders. An excellent psychosocial development
among the teens is reflected in sound physical health, proper emotional, psychological and social
health as well as the sound and outstanding academic performance (Mariu et al., 2012).
Mark a high school student who has dropped his grades and withdrawn from friends may be
suffering some psychosocial problems like anxiety. Anxiety is a feeling associated with inner
turmoil and destructive behaviors such as somatic complaints, mood disorders, conduct
disorders, panic disorder and panic attacks, separation anxiety, agoraphobia and specific phobias,
etc.
Depression is a state in which individuals feel unmotivated, hopeless, sad, discouraged and lacks
interest in most activities of life for a period. It affects how people feels, thinks, functions
behaves and relates to others. It is a condition that can be treated through proper counseling by
professional and also can be reduced by use of some antidepressants drugs. Mark may also be
experiencing some state of depression. There are cases where most teenagers suffer short periods
of depression or experience anxiety due to school matters that are temporary. This case is
demonstrated where Mark stays indoors without doing anything, and his mother thought he was
studying. A young person with mental disorders may face problems in their school activities,
homes, and interpersonal relations and the general community. The depression causes the mark
to hear fabulous things and when his mother told him she couldn't listen to he suddenly became
upset. It is advisable to seek professional assistance when these psychological, behavioral
symptoms persist (Edidin et al., 2012).

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2. What informal supports are available to the person?
Mark received support in several ways. Mark reduced his contact with friends, and he seems to
have mental lapses where he tells his mother about things happening, but in the real sense, there
was nothing. His mother tried to find some of his former friends and explained to them about the
matter. She used this to help her understand better what is happening to her son. In this way, can
help Mark improve social support and aggravated feeling of loneliness. Reconnecting someone
with such mental disorder with his or her friends is one of the most important ways of managing
most mental related problems, and thus it is a support to help mark.
It is a stressing and challenging condition for her mother to determine what is happening with her
son as Mark who was initially excellent in his school activities and also in his social events.
Mark’s mother arranged with the school on how Mark’s condition can be treated in a way that
won’t disrupt his education. She also strategized with a personal psychologist who visited mark
frequently to monitor and manage her son's strange behavior. Mark’s mother also planned for
prayers with church leaders to strengthen her son’s hope. Most adolescents with such mental
disorders may face several challenges like discrimination and negative attitudes from their age
mates or the general population. (Daumit et al., 2013).
3. What professional and agencies are involved or likely to be involved with the
person?
At, early stages of the psychological disease affects the family members and other people who
are close to the patient. Patient’s peers, GPs, psychologist, and psychiatrist play an essential
responsibility in providing support and foster appropriate assistance (Davidson, Jones and
Bienvenu, 2012). The other youths listen, support and talk to their friend Mark followed by

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speaking, listening and offering any support they can to the family and motivate the parents to
seek professional help. The significance of involving young friends of Mark is that they take the
issue with a lot of sensitivity and respond to it accordingly and help to engage psychiatrist or
psychological professional when the case persist. (Embuldeniya et al., 2013).
Due to the Australian statistics regarding the development of mental illness among the youths led
to the establishment of agencies and bodies to examine the cause of mental disorders prevalence
in the youths. To counter some of the youth complications of psychological disease associated
with the misuse of substance abuse especially in schools, there were programs set up by the
school management. Some of these disorders include phobia, compulsive- obsessive disorder and
post-traumatic stress disorder which affects Mark's where he shown phobia of someone stealing
his ideas of the science project. (Reiss, 2013). These programs were referred to as School-Based
Mental Health (SBMH) services that enhanced easy access for youth's services. These programs
also reduced the stigma of seeking help and increases chances to promote generalization and
enable the capacity for the promotion of mental health and efforts of preventing the problem. It
was essential for Mark's mother to involve the youths in the issue that affected their schoolmate
and a friend which brought positive outcomes such as less depressive symptoms (Babitsch, Gohl
and von Lengerke, 2012).
Some of the elementary agencies for SBMH include; i) full commitment in mental health
education, disorder problem prevention, treatment, assessment, early intervention and mental
health promotion, (ii) school-community- family agency partnerships, (iii) service to all youths,
including those in special and general education. There is a need to create a healthy relationship
between learning institutions and other community sectors and programs to help in improving

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the health care system in the community. These agencies could be of great help in determining
and assisting Mark's parents in solving the problem associated with their son (Jorm, 2012).
4. What are the gaps in service delivery for people with this mental health illness?
The medical journal of Australia shown lack of universality and inequity in the delivery of
mental health care services. The mental health care services in Australia is composed of multi-
tier instead of being universal. The disadvantaged group of people and those who live in rural
areas do receive lower volumes of mental health services and less highly trained care providers.
A particular study has shown that the utilization of clinical psychiatrist and psychologist was 2 to
3 times greater in affluent areas of Sydney and Melbourne compared to the corresponding usage
in the disadvantaged rural areas. In 2006 the Australian government implemented an act of better
access to mental health care services that consist of Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) resources
towards improving access to the psychologist, general practitioners, and psychiatrist. The
evaluation of an act of better access program of mental health services highlight the lift rates for
psychological therapy services reduces the level of socioeconomic challenges (Goldberg and
Huxley, 2012). Such applications could benefits the examining and solving Mark’s problem.
The criteria of raising the level of care are different, and the vulnerable groups require higher
levels of professional health practitioners to deal with disturbance or distress to lift the standards
of care in rural areas of disadvantaged groups. The co-payments of the advantaged people results
to deterrent access of mental responsibility. High earners specialist such as clinical psychiatrist
and psychologist tend to operate near their homes which leads to unequal distribution of mental
health care services (Ivers et al., 2012).

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5. What advocacy needs to happen for people with this mental health issue?
Through the casualty of mental health advocacy protocol throughout the world resulted in a
considerable change in the society's attitude towards the mentally ill persons. The advocacy has
assisted people with mental disorders to have a right to articulate their desire for the services they
need. Mark’s mother had to consider his ideas about the science project and evaluate what was
behind it as it could be one of the problems affecting Mark. The notion of advocating for mental
health was developed to promote the rights of people with mental disorders and aid to decrease
discrimination and stigmatization. The psychological health intercession involves a variety of
actions aiming at altering the attitude barriers and essential structures to achieve positive
outcomes of mental health in the people with such disorders (Zolkoski and Bullock, 2012).
Families and frequent consumers came up with organizations that would enable their issues to
have listened. They joined, and they were supported by the non- governmental organizations,
mental health workers together with their associations and also some governments sectors. The
psychological health mediator strategies substantially influenced the implementation of the
mental health rules and policy in various countries which later resulted in a significant factor to
be considered for improvements by Word Health Organizations (WHO). (Shaw et al., 2012).
Following the above advocacy Mark's mother could help his son by finding a good psychologist
or a psychiatrist who could improve the issue of Mark. She could overcome the problem by
involving an easily accessible non- governmental organization as it affects mental health
professionals and interdisciplinary from diverse areas. It could be helpful to Mark's mother
because some of the nongovernmental organizations have mental health practitioners who work
with people suffering from mental disorders. The government to provide the advocacy
organizations with any required support to enable their empowerment and development.

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